“Because guys always want someone that they can’t have.” She nodded, her mind obviously working overtime. “And, well, guys don’t respect friend zones. He’s not going to be like ‘oh I’m in the friend zone, I will never try and hit on her’. He’s going to be like, ‘shit, this girl is hot, I want her, who cares about the friend zone?’”
“Um, I don’t know about that. Aren’t I already in the friend zone? Isn’t it pretty obvious that I’ve been interested in him for a long time? And he certainly hasn’t disrespected any of my boundaries yet.”
“Yeah, he probably knows you’ve been interested in him for some amount of time, or were interested at one time, but guess what, it’s easy to get out of that. Guys don’t overanalyze like we do. All you need is to have another guy around, someone else interested in you, throw it in his face, not overtly, but maybe you can ask him for guy advice, relationship advice sort of stuff. That way you show him you’re over him and into other guys and he’s the one who’s now friend-zoned.”
“But that’s not true.” I frowned. “And where am I getting these other guys from? It’s not like they’re swarming around me.”
“You join some online dating sites, plus we’ll go to bars.”
“TJ will be cool with that?” I asked her with a raised eyebrow. TJ was a confident, cocky man, but he was always jealous when Mila was around other men. I couldn’t see that he would be happy with her going out with me to pick up other men. “Also, are you going to tell TJ that this is a game for me, meeting these other guys? That I’m trying to make Cody jealous? What if TJ told Cody? How embarrassing would that be?”
“I’m not going to tell TJ.” She shook her head. “At least not now. I don’t think he would tell Cody, though.” Mila looked thoughtful. “I’ll just tell him that you want to meet some new guys and need a friend with you.”
“Yeah, he might not tell him on purpose, but what if something slipped out, like, ‘Damn, that Sally is really into you, she’s playing all these games to get to you.’”
“TJ would not just let something like that slip.” Mila shook her head and laughed. “That wouldn’t be an innocent slip. And I’m not going to tell him it’s all a game. Not at first, anyway. But I will eventually, since TJ is my fiancé and I don’t want to lie to him. Plus, he’s a good guy. You can trust him.”
“Yeah, well, TJ’s not really an innocent, is he?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean, before you guys got together, he was a jackass to both of us.” I laughed. “He was always making fun of us. And this is something that I can imagine him making fun of me for.”
“That’s just his way.” Mila looked at me with a small, loving smile, though I knew she was thinking of TJ’s ways much more affectionately now than I was. I didn’t love him.
“Exactly.” I gave her a pointed look. “That’s his way. He’s not just going to stop doing it. Yeah, maybe he’s going to stop teasing you because he loves you and he wants to marry you and keep having sex with you.” I laughed at the look on her face. “But nothing has changed with me. He’s still going to keep teasing me. And if I’m going to do this crazy plan and try and get Cody to be my BFF, then I’m not going to want to be worried that TJ is going to let something slip and make me look like an idiot.”
“So you’re entertaining the idea?” Mila said with a smile, ignoring my TJ disses.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” I sighed. “It doesn’t seem like the worst idea. And then at least I’d get to spend time with him. So that even if he doesn’t fall in love with me, he’d still be in my life.” I took another sip of wine. “Oh, God, I sound pathetic, don’t I?”
“Not pathetic. You just sound like someone who wants to be around the man you love.”
“I can’t really love him though, can I?” I groaned and placed the glass of wine down on the table in front of me. “This is just sad. I’m in love with a guy who sees me only as his sister’s best friend and now I’m trying to become his best friend, so I can be closer to him, so that I can hopefully make him jealous and get him to fall in love with me.”
“We can’t help who we love.” Mila shrugged. “That’s why I got into the fake engagement with TJ. I just wanted to spend time with him. I mean, that wasn’t the best situation for me in any way. I thought my heart was going to be ripped out of my chest. I thought my soul was going to leave my body forever.”
“Yeah, but it worked out for you.” I gave her a weak smile. “And, well, TJ at least was eager to sleep with you. Cody has never given me any indication that he is interested in anything with me. No dating, no kissing, no bending me over a bed and taking me. He’s not given me any indication for anything. And I know he’s not asexual.”
“Would you be happy if he’d tried to make a move, like he did with Barbie?” Mila said softly. “Honestly, how would you have felt? What if he basically had a one-night stand with you and then never spoke to you again?”
“Well, I’d feel like shit, but at least I’d know that he’d at least been attracted to me once.” I gave her a wry smile.